After a rather full on day of sightseeing, we were very tired but ready for an exciting night out :)
We dressed ourselves up a little bit and headed over to King's Cross where we boarded a train to Picadilly Circus. The streets were very busy around this area, which is highly understandable! There was so much there! Most of the streets were decorated with glittering, lit up signage advertising various West End musicals :) I was in awe. Anyone who knows me and my mother well, knows that we love musicals.
Finally after a short walk we saw the name 'Les Miserables' lit up in the distance. The excitement I felt at even just seeing the name of the world's longest running musical lit up in front of me was indescribable! We walked over to a rather empty theatre entrance and picked up our tickets, ready for the show in two ours at 7:30pm. We asked the man in the ticket booth to advise of somewhere nice to eat, he suggested avoiding the steakhouse across the street as he swore that "they serve horse meat" (hahaha) but that a different steakhourse over towards Leciester Square was very lovely.
We walked down a few streets, past London's China town and the local Maccas, when we finally located the "Angus Steakhouse". We noticed on our way in the door that there was a massive and very glittery set up of some sort with a lot of Narnia posters in the centre of the square and right outside the restaurant. When we walked into the lovely, warm and rather fancy looking steakhouse, we asked the lady seating us what was happening outside and she calmly informed us it was the London Narnia premiere. Oh, you know, just a movie premiere... pft...common things they are..... !!!!!!!!!!!!! We were so excited! We could even hear the stars of the movie being interviewed via microphone whilst sitting in the restaurant.
When ordering our meals, the waitress told us (also rather calmly) that the Queen was attending the premiere.... Oh, who? The Queen? Who's that again?..... We were shocked. The Queen of England was going to be within 100 metres of us in an hour or two, how exciting! Dad then found out that her time of arrival was 7:15pm. Oh. Our bubbles all burst. Les Miserables stopped seating people at 7:15, as the show started at 7:30 :(
Mum and I were rather content with the fact that we would miss seeing the Queen, of course it would be a wonderful once in a life time experience, but we couldn't miss the show for a 2 second glance at her majesty. Dad however (being Dad), was not convinced. He was sure that we could see the Queen as well as make the show.
We all thorougly enjoyed our meal at the restaurant, for me personally, it was the best meal I'd had whilst in England. Definately not your average steakhouse! As much as the deserts tempted us, we simply did not have enough time, so we paid and headed outside. Dad was ahead of us and next thing we new he was walking over towards the entrace to the theatre that Narnia was going to premiering in. There was a red carpet and everything :) We waited amongst the surprisingling little crowds at the barrier of the carpet. It was 6:45pm by this point. We waited and waited, but nothing really happened. Just a bunch of random people clicking away on their mobile phones walking briskly into the cinema. Then suddenly, who should appear, but the great Aslan himself, Liam Neeson.
He briskly walked down the red carpet waving here and there and before we knew it he was inside. Pretty cool though :) By this time it was around 6:55 and Mum and I were starting to get a bit nervous. As much as we wanted to see the Queen... we didn't want to miss the show. At 7pm we decided we'd go to the show, I especially did not want to risk missing it. Dad and Sam on the other hand wanted to see the Queen and swore they would make it on time.
........
It's 7:30pm the curtains are closing at the theatre doors, the lights are dimming and suddenly the overture starts to play and the stage curtains open. I look to my right, and there sits my Mother staring blankly at the stage with two young girls next to her. I look to my left.... I see two empty seats. They didn't make it.
Mum and I were devastated, but we promised that we wouldn't let their own risk ruin our experience. But it was hard, as their absence was very distracting. A rather long song started off the show, setting up the story a bit, mainly performed by the main character Jean Valjean. It was fantastic! I had already fallen in love with the show and it had barely started and I absolutely adored the voice of the performer who played Jean Valjean. But of course the boys were still on my mind. The song finished for the first time in about 7 minutes. I lookd back during the applause and I see Dad and Sam being let into the theatre and being showed to their seats by a man with a torch. Phew! Mum and I had thought that they may not have let them in until intermission. The very breifly told us that they had missed out the Queen, had met Liam Neeson again and had watched the beginning of the show on the televisions outside. Mum and I were not impressed, but we forgot about it and just enjoyed the show.
It was fantastic! Ahhh so good :) Did I mention I love musicals? I could go back and see this a million times over. The music, the stage, the acting and the story... it was all just so brilliant. I loved it, so much :) And if you're going to see a musical in West End at any time in your life, I suggest you pick Les Mis. It's not the longest running musical for no reason!
As we left the theatre and took the underground home, the boys explained to us that the red carpet had been a set up. Because the Queen was coming, they set up a fake red carpet on the opposite side of the square to the real one, and sent all the stars of the movie into the fake one to distract the public and the press. Basically once the Queen was safely inside they sent all the stars back out and over to the right cinema. What a waste of time haha. But we were then told, that on the way out of the fake cinema Liam Neeson shook Dad's hand. Dad couldn't get the smile off of his face. He was definatey more impressed by that than the show, but oh well. He recorded a video of his encounter with the big celeb so he was pleased :)
Overall a fanatastic evening :) and by the way, the Les Mis songs have been stuck in our heads ever since haha
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